a history of curriculum services canada
a history of curriculum services canada
a history of curriculum services canada
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The exploration <strong>of</strong> cost-saving initiatives was also a major focus <strong>of</strong> attention. In April, the<br />
Executive Director attended a conference on The Learning Partnership, directed at strategies for<br />
developing partnerships. The point was made that business in general has very little<br />
understanding <strong>of</strong> the educational world, an indication that education about education would be a<br />
very important strategy for OCC in its future negotiations with business.<br />
A meeting with the Director <strong>of</strong> the Independent Learning Centre raised the possibility <strong>of</strong> sharing<br />
<strong>of</strong>fice and administrative space in future, as a way for both organizations to reduce expenses. In<br />
a similar attempt to minimize future costs, a review <strong>of</strong> database management systems was also<br />
initiated with the goal <strong>of</strong> finding the most appropriate system for OCC. Changing the format <strong>of</strong><br />
OCC’s Annual General Meeting in June from that <strong>of</strong> a retreat to a regular Board meeting was<br />
another attempt to minimize operating expenses. Ongoing changes in OCC’s structure also led<br />
to savings in the area <strong>of</strong> human resources.<br />
April brought the next stage <strong>of</strong> the development process <strong>of</strong> The Evaluator with a project on bias<br />
pro<strong>of</strong>ing initiated with the First Folio Resource Group Inc., a company staffed by teachers in the<br />
field <strong>of</strong> <strong>curriculum</strong> development.<br />
Also in April encouraging letters <strong>of</strong> support for OCC arrived, including one from the Deputy<br />
Minister, Veronica Lacey. Such feedback reflected the ongoing hard work that OCC continued<br />
to exhibit.<br />
May and June continued with many promotional activities as well as the more pressing drive to<br />
find new directors. Letters were sent to over 30 educational associations requesting that OCC be<br />
placed on their conference workshop agendas for the fall. Press releases announcing The<br />
Evaluator went to every English school board and Faculty <strong>of</strong> Education, and to other educational<br />
groups across Canada. Several conferences were attended with OCC displays included. As<br />
well, an important link was made with the University <strong>of</strong> Toronto’s Faculty <strong>of</strong> Education, with<br />
The Evaluator being given full support and promotion in the faculty’s workshops and courses.<br />
Essex County and Northumberland-Clarington Boards also adopted The Evaluator as their<br />
standard <strong>of</strong> excellence in <strong>curriculum</strong> development, and the Peel board showed its support by<br />
ordering 200 sets <strong>of</strong> worksheets for their evaluation process. Other boards beginning to show<br />
interest in OCC were Simcoe County and Northumberland-Newcastle.<br />
By June, two new Associate Members representing the corporate sector had been appointed to<br />
the Board - Ayman Antoun <strong>of</strong> IBM and Tom Strong <strong>of</strong> CIBC. Both new members had<br />
demonstrated long-time support for public education and recognized the need to develop<br />
stronger ties between education and business.<br />
Throughout the summer, a team <strong>of</strong> experienced teacher educators met with OCC and developed<br />
a plan for a series <strong>of</strong> workshops entitled “Reaching Curriculum Standards,” based upon the<br />
guidelines <strong>of</strong> the Evaluator. A pilot presentation <strong>of</strong> these workshops was planned for October,<br />
with the Durham Board <strong>of</strong> Education <strong>of</strong>fering to host the event. The idea was to have the<br />
workshops re-evaluated by outside educators and to further discuss design and marketing issues.<br />
1997<br />
©2008 Curriculum Services Canada 40